And I'm a big fan of the tiki chair and some of your other pieces. A lot of good stuff going on over there inb France.

This is a new one I started today. Essentially a commission for a friend who wants a really nice, detailed, tiki to give her girlfriend as a baby gift. And of course she wants me to put the baby's name & birthday & every other thing on there...oh yeah, and she only wants to spend a hundred bucks (we all have a few of those freinds don't we?). But she's been a pretty good friend, so I'll hook her up.

Here we are after a little log skinning, a quick draw-out, and a few passes with saw & grinder.

so, I'm literally sitting around the house, drinking some Appleton Rum & coke that my girl left over here watching a thrid reich documentary that I tivo'ed while simultaneously perusing a HOT ROD magazine, and kinda got inspired to make something. In fact, as soon as it hit me I had to grab some tools & go outside to get the piece started. A complete departure from anything I've done, this is a hot rod / chopper / Ed Roth inspired piece, complete with german helmet, and probably some mix of racing stripes, flames,etc.

So now I'm all excited and want to do a few like this, and turn a few of 'em over to one of my artist friends to paint up / stripe / tattoo / whatever.

This isn't my "new direction", just a new idea I feel like running with for a few pieces.....

So I took him down to the bar last night & my buddy Jeremiah was there, and he laid a few flames down with a pencil, so it looks like he will be sort of standing in fire about waist deep.

And I may actually put some primer the helmet & rattle-can it Jet black, with some kind of metal-flake Triumph-style racing stripe across it, and he may a get a few other "painted" details, but his face will remain wood stained, and I may even try to dremel in some polynesian style "tattooing" around the facial details, because it is important to me that at the end of the day it remains a tiki. A completely off-kilter, not very "islandy", theme tiki, but a tiki none-the-less (and I feel somewhat conflicted even doing this piece because I usually think that "theme-y" shit is totally lame, like some orange county chopper made to look like it's a helicopter or spiderman or something...dumb. There's a fairly lame, poorly-done Tampa Bay Buccaneers-themed tiki at a bar I frequent, and every time I see it I'm like "wow, never" but somehow this seems less lame to me...that or I'm just rationalizing...)

Anyway, he'll probably get my buddy Dallas's car club logo on his chest or helmet, as Dallas has already come over & seen the progress so far and called "dibs". He's pretty much a tatt-ed up rockabilly car dude & a huge Roth fan, so he was all over it.

It will probably be hangin' out when they go to car shows and stuff, and that's pretty cool.